Status within social hierarchies has great effects on the lives of socially organized mammals. Its effects on human behavior and related physiology, however, is relatively little studied. The present study investigated the impact of military rank on fairness and behavior in relation to salivary cortisol (C) and testosterone (T) levels in male soldiers. For this purpose 180 members of the Austrian Armed Forces belonging to two distinct rank groups participated in two variations of a computer-based guard duty allocation experiment...

Situations that are emotional and arousing have an effect on cognitive performance. It is thought that beta adrenergic activation and the release of stress hormones enhance memory consolidation and lead to an increase in memorability of emotional events. This beneficial effect has been shown in humans, non-human primates and rodents. Techniques which could enhance memory for learning specific tasks would be highly valuable, especially in dogs, which are extensively trained to aid humans. A pseudo-randomized, counterbalanced, between subject study designs was utilised and 16 Labrador Retrievers ranging from 1 to 9years of age were trained in a 2-choice discrimination paradigm...

Administration of low amounts of endogenous hormones - so-called micro-dosages - are supposed to represent a major challenge in doping analysis. To model such a situation, we have studied transdermal administrations of 2.4 mg/24 h testosterone patches and examined various steroid concentrations in blood, urine, and saliva of 11 volunteers. Multiple samples were collected at t = 0, 3, 6, 9, 24, 48, and 72 h in four different phases, i.e., all combinations with/without physical exercise and with/without testosterone...

Research on healthy aging in men has increasingly focused on age-related hormonal changes. Testosterone (T) decline is primarily investigated, while age-related changes in other sex steroids (dehydroepiandrosterone [DHEA], estradiol [E2], progesterone [P]) are mostly neglected. An integrated hormone parameter reflecting aging processes in men has yet to be identified. 271 self-reporting healthy men between 40 and 75 provided both psychometric data and saliva samples for hormone analysis. Correlation analysis between age and sex steroids revealed negative associations for the four sex steroids (T, DHEA, E2, and P)...

OBJECTIVES: Leptin is a hormone-like protein produced by the adipose tissue. It plays an important role in protection of host against inflammation and infection. Some studies have reported changes in leptin levels in the gingival crevicular fluid (GCF), saliva and blood serum of patients with periodontal disease compared to healthy individuals. The aim of the present study was to compare the salivary leptin levels in patients with advanced periodontitis and healthy individuals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this case-control study, the salivary samples of healthy individuals and patients with advanced periodontitis with clinical attachment loss >5mm were obtained using a standardized method and the leptin levels were measured in the salivary samples by means of ELISA...

BACKGROUND: Cushing's syndrome is rare during pregnancy and more commonly due to adrenal pathology, in contrast to the non-pregnant population. Increased levels of cortisol-binding globulin and placental production of corticotropin-releasing hormone and adrenocorticotropic hormone complicate the diagnostic strategies usually employed. CASE: A 32-year-old G1P0 at 15/40 gestation presented with severe peripheral oedema and excessive weight gain. Examination revealed pitting oedema to the abdominal wall, wide violaceous striae, moon facies and acne...

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) and hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axes are typically conceptualized as mutually inhibitory systems; however, previous studies have found evidence for positive within-person associations (i.e., coupling) between cortisol and testosterone. One developmental hypothesis is that positive testosterone-cortisol coupling is unique to the adolescent period and that coupling becomes attenuated, or even switches direction, in adulthood. This study used a lifespan sample (N=292, ages 11-88) to test for age-related differences in coupling between cortisol and testosterone in daily life...

Sjögren's syndrome is a chronic autoimmune disease whose main clinical manifestation is oral dryness (xerostomia) and ocular dryness (xerophthalmia). It is characterized by progressive mononuclear infiltration of the exocrine glands and can affect a variety of organ systems. The prevalence of primary Sjögren's syndrome varies from 0.01 up to 4.8%; this variability reflects differences in definition, application of diagnostic criteria, and geographic differences in age groups. The etiology of primary Sjögren's syndrome is unknown, but the interaction between genetic and environmental factors (viruses, hormones, vitamins, stress) is important...

Salivary cortisol is widely used as an indicator of stress and welfare in canine research. However, much remains unclear about the basic features of this hormone marker in domestic dogs. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine a reference range for cortisol concentration in the saliva of dogs and examine how canine characteristics, environmental effects and experimental considerations relate to salivary cortisol concentrations. A systematic review of literature databases and conference proceedings from 1992 to 2012 identified 61 peer-reviewed studies using domestic dog salivary cortisol...

Variation within the serotonin transporter gene-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTPLR) contributes to individual differences in trait neuroticism and increases risk for the development of psychopathology in the context of stressful life events. The underlying mechanisms may involve dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the release of stress-related hormones. Yet, observed effects are small, possibly because they occur against the background of many other, mostly unknown, genetic and environmental variables...

Multiple aspects of Drosophila oogenesis, including germline stem cell activity, germ cell differentiation, and follicle survival, are regulated by the steroid hormone ecdysone. While the transcriptional targets of ecdysone signaling during development have been studied extensively, targets in the ovary remain largely unknown. Early studies of salivary gland polytene chromosomes led to a model in which ecdysone stimulates a hierarchical transcriptional cascade, wherein a core group of ecdysone-sensitive transcription factors induce tissue-specific responses by activating secondary branches of transcriptional targets...

There is currently an increasing interest in exploring human saliva to identify salivary diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, since the collection of saliva is rapid, non-invasive and stress-free. Diagnostic tests on saliva are common and cost-effective, particularly for patients who need to monitor their hormone levels or the effectiveness of undergoing therapies. Furthermore, salivary diagnostics is ideal for surveillance studies and in situations where fast results and inexpensive technologies are required...

Hot flashes, hormones, and psychosocial factors contribute to insomnia risk in the context of the menopausal transition. Stress is a well-recognized factor implicated in the pathophysiology of insomnia; however the impact of stress on sleep and sleep-related processes in perimenopausal women remains largely unknown. We investigated the effect of an acute experimental stress (impending Trier Social Stress Task in the morning) on pre-sleep measures of cortisol and autonomic arousal in perimenopausal women with and without insomnia that developed in the context of the menopausal transition...

Research on within-subject changes in women's intrasexual competitiveness has generally focused on possible relationships between women's intrasexual competitiveness and estimates of their fertility. While this approach is useful for testing hypotheses about the adaptive function of changes in women's intrasexual competitiveness, it offers little insight into the proximate mechanisms through which such changes might occur. To investigate this issue, we carried out a longitudinal study of the hormonal correlates of changes in intrasexual competitiveness in a large sample of heterosexual women (N=136)...

Point-of-care measurement of the stress hormone cortisol will greatly facilitate the timely diagnosis and management of stress-related disorders. We describe an automated salivary cortisol immunosensor, incorporating centrifugal fluid valves and a disposable disc-chip that allows for truncated reporting of cortisol levels (<15 min). The performance characteristics of the immunosensor are optimized through select blocking agents to prevent the non-specific adsorption of proteins; immunoglobulin G (IgG) polymer for the pad and milk protein for the reservoirs and the flow channels...

Undernutrition is a stressor with long-term consequences, and the effect of nutritional recovery on cortisol and thyroid hormone status is unknown. To investigate basal thyroid hormones and the cortisol response to a cold pressor test in children recovered from undernutrition, a cross-sectional study was undertaken on children (6-16 years) separated into four groups: control (n 41), stunted (n 31), underweight (n 27) and recovered (n 31). Salivary cortisol was collected over the course of 10 h: upon awakening, before and after an unpleasant and a pleasant stimulus...

Autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) is a rare disease with clinical presentations that greatly mimic pancreatic cancer (PC). It is critical for clinicians to distinguish AIP from PC because their treatments and prognoses are entirely different. Typical images show characteristic features such as diffuse pancreatic swelling and strictures of the main pancreatic duct (MPD). However, AIP may present as a localized pancreatic mass, in which case it is very difficult to differentiate from PC. Here, we report a case of a 40-year-old man with computed tomography (CT) imaging studies confirming an area of low-density neoplasm in the uncinate process of the pancreas with dilation in the common biliary duct (CBD) and MPD...

The polyphagous feeding habits of the corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), underscore its status as a major agricultural pest with a wide geographic distribution and host plant repertoire. To study the transcriptomic response to toxins in diet, we conducted a microarray analysis of H. zea caterpillars feeding on artificial diet, diet laced with nicotine and Nicotiana tabacum (L.) plants. We supplemented our analysis with growth and aversion bioassays. The transcriptome reflects an abundant expression of proteases, chitin, cytochrome P450 and immune-related genes, many of which are shared between the two experimental treatments...

According to the coping styles hypothesis, an individual demonstrates an integrated behavioural and physiological response to environmental challenge that is consistent over time and across situations. Individual consistency in behavioural responses to challenge has been documented across the animal kingdom. Comparatively few studies, however, have examined inter-individual variation in the physiological response, namely glucocorticoid and catecholamine levels, the stress hormones secreted by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic nervous system, respectively...

Multivariate statistical analysis is widely used in medical studies as a profitable tool facilitating diagnosis of some diseases, for instance, cancer, allergy, pneumonia, or Alzheimer's and psychiatric diseases. Taking this in consideration, the aim of this study was to use two multivariate techniques, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA), to disclose the relationship between the drugs used in the therapy of major depressive disorder and the salivary cortisol level and the period of hospitalization...